Samoa is a country that is located right near American Samoa. It is a small
country that is in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. This land is between
Hawaii and New Zealand.

Samoa is different from American Samoa in terms of how it has been occupied.
The Samoan islands have been occupied for thousands of years. However, the
Samoan islands were divided by the Tripartite Convention in 1899. This caused
the land to be divided between the Germans and Americans. The Americans would
hold onto the eastern lands while Germany would control Savai?i and Upolu on the
western part. These two islands make up present-day Samoa.

The deal was used as a means of dividing Samoa between the two countries.
Both countries had expressed a very strong interest in the Samoan area and have
wanted to take some level of control of Samoa over the years.

Samoa was eventually occupied by New Zealand after World War I. Samoa would
then declare its independence from New Zealand in 1961. It has run on its own
ever since.

The key difference between Samoa and American Samoa is that American Samoa is
an unincorporated territory that is controlled by the United States. Samoa is a
completely independent operation. In fact, the country voted to change its name
from Western Samoa to Samoa back in 1997.

Samoa runs with a parliamentary republic. This is where the executive and
legislative parts of the government run with the same level of power and without
any real separation between the two. This is similar to what New Zealand,
Australia and Canada uses.

The country still has some links to New Zealand. The most notable is that
people who are ambassadors to New Zealand are essentially serving duty as
ambassadors to Samoa at the same time.